


Let Us Adore You

by BlossomingDia



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Child Zhong Chen Le, Dessert & Sweets, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, One Shot Collection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death, Princes & Princesses, Sweet, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, they're all whipped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2020-10-11 10:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20544470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlossomingDia/pseuds/BlossomingDia
Summary: When Kun, Sicheng and Renjun find a little boy in a field who reminds them of their long gone little brother, they can't help but want to adore him.





	1. Chapter 1

The three men knelt on the grassy ground trying to keep their expressions soft as they edged closer to the trembling figure in the bushes in front of them. “Excuse me, Little Boy?” Kun, the eldest of the three asked softly as he reached out a hand “Would you come out here so we can talk to you for a moment.” With a gentle rustle the figure emerged from the bushes revealing itself to be a short, dark haired child of perhaps six or seven who stared back at them with wide eyes and a hanging mouth as he took in the sight of the kingdom's three princes kneeling before him.

“We’ve seen you wandering around a lot out here, where are your parents?” Sicheng, the second prince asked as stroked the little boy’s head.

His eyes began to water slightly, dripping fat tears down his cheeks as he whispered a quiet “They died a long time ago… the lady at the home is mean to me so I ran away!” 

The three exchanged a look as they pulled the little boy into a tight hug as to rock him slightly to calm down his hiccupping sobs. When they eventually subsided, they looked down onto the little boy with soft smiles “If there’s no one to care for you, would you perhaps like to stay in the castle for a little while. It’ll be lots of fun, we promise and there’ll be no one to shout at you again!”.

Without hesitation the little boy nodded, accepting Kun’s hand so he could guide him back to the castle while Sicheng and Renjun hung back slightly to watch their retreating figures with growing smiles. “It’s amazing how much he reminds me of Lele when he was little.” Renjun mumbled.

“I know…” 

The two exchanged a little giggle as they watched Kun pull a candy out of his pocket for the child who lit up with delight as he hurried to eat it “It’ll be nice to have someone to adore again. He’ll never want for anything and will never have to do anything except allow us to love him unconditionally.” Sicheng mumbled. 

“Let’s just hope that he’ll be better at it than Lele was…. You know how cranky he would get when we would dote on him.”

“Let’s hope so…” 

As the sun set in colours of pink and bright yellow the four of them retreated into the castle with the sound of the child’s laughter ringing as a happy melody in their ears.


	2. Chapter 2

Kun watched the child as he dug his fingers into the mess of cake on the plate in front of him and promptly slurped the cream and jam concoction from his already stick hands, laughing and sucking a strawberry from the top of the dessert into his mouth with a sigh of happiness. “Was that good?” He asked sweetly as he reached with a damp handkerchief to wipe the mess away “Have you had your fill? Or would you like some more?” 

“More?” The little boy asked with bright eyes at the prospect of more desserts “What else have you got?” 

“We’ve got whatever you want!” 

The little boy seemed to ponder his prospects at Kun’s words, creasing his brow in the concentration of having to choose between hundreds of potential desserts that stretched out of his mind and laid themselves on the table. “I want… pudding! And ice cream! And more cakes!” He demanded, breaking out into a smile as Kun snapped his fingers and the servants who stood watching the spectacle with weary eyes scrambled to fetch the desserts that had been requested. One particularly brave servant approached the table, maintaining eye contact with the child as he whispered into the prince’s ear only to be met with matching scowls from both the child and his prince. 

“If he gets sick from eating the desserts then I’ll make sure he feels better.” He snapped “It’s not like he’ll be eating this many all of the time. Plus, he’s tiny! He needs to be fattened up a little, its not healthy for a child of his age to be as thin as he is.”

The servant dismissed himself with a little grimace as the child smirked triumphantly at him then turned back to his tray of snacks to begin shovelling them into his mouth with fervour that he’d never seen before. The maids and butlers watched with slight smiles at the look of adoration that was plastered on Kun’s face as he stroked the child’s hair and moved him to sit on his lap so he could feed him bites of his puddings as they spoke quietly between themselves. 

“He really is a lot like Prince Lele was when he was younger… its practically uncanny.”

“That’s why they brought him back with them stupid. Its so they can dote on him like he was Lele since they look so alike and the kid seems to like the attention.”

The maid shivered slightly “I don’t know… it doesn’t seem right to me for them to spoil the child rotten because he reminds them of Lele.”

The butler simply shrugged slightly then moved to the table to pick up the tray, whisking it away with a silent sigh as he thought about the mess he’d be cleaning up when that child vomited from all of the sweets he’d eaten. Though he did have to admit, the kid was very cute and he had something about him that made him want to wrap him up and dote on his every whim...

He shook his head again. The kid was too like Lele for his own good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay... Hopefully, I'll have a chapter of Eight Bit Heart up tomorrow when I come back from uni and I'll finally post the last chapter of My Prince.


	3. Chapter 3

A gentle cough dragged Renjun’s attention away from the sight of the little boy playing on the rug in the drawing room surrounded by dozens of toys as he dug through a little chest to find something else to play with. A butler hovered nearby with his brow creased with worry as he watched child pull out a pack of markers and begin drawing on everything he could find, whether it was paper or the cream carpet of the drawing room floor. “My prince, the foreign delegates of trade will be here in a few hours may I suggest that you and the young master move out of the drawing room to get ready so we can prepare the room?” 

Renjun nodded and stood with a little stretch as he watched the little boy scribbling away furiously, unbeknownst of the butler who approached him with as much patience as he could muster. “Young master? Would you be able to put your toys back into the chest before you go with your big brother?” He asked softly, trying to smile as much as he could to no avail as the boy puffed his cheeks up, turning an angry shade of red as he glared at the butler who seemed taken aback at the sudden change.

“I don’t wanna!”

There was a moment where his brow twitched slightly before he approached the child again “Please young master, it would be very helpful if you would clean up the toys… one of the cooks might even give you a little treat if you clean up the toys.” 

The child’s expression seemed to waver at the notion of treats but eventually settled back into a scowl as he threw himself onto the floor and began to scream until Renjun moved and collected him from the carpet, setting him on his back with a scowl at the butler. “Enough.” Renjun snapped at him “You’ll clean up the toys and then prepare the room for the arrival of the trade delegates, and it had best be immaculate or else we’ll be having some words. As well, you’ll never ask him to clean up his toys again as it is your job to do these things, and you’ll send for the cooks to prepare him whatever snacks he desires since he deserves it after how terrible you were to him. Am I clear?” 

“But my prince-“ 

“Am I clear?” He repeated slightly louder with a firm glare.

The servant gave a little nod and watched as the prince retreated with the small boy clinging to his back, turning slightly to stick his tongue out at him before snuggling further into Renjun’s neck. “What a brat…” He muttered with a little tut as he signalled to a nearby maid “Can you come and help me here, we’ve not got long to clean the marker stains out of the carpet and that little brat went to town on it.”


	4. Chapter 4

Hell had broken loose that day when the still serenity of the castle had been interrupted by an eruption of screaming which revealed itself to originate from the flailing child who pounded his fists against the carpets as he screamed himself hoarse. Next to him stood one of the maids who’s eyes shone with unshed tears as she looked down at the mess of ceramic on the floor. 

“What happened?” Sicheng demanded as he looked between the two with a rising sense of hysteria “Did he hurt himself or something?” 

The maid seemed to pale slightly “I don’t know my prince, he seemed frightfully upset about something and he walked into me when I had the vases for the dining room-“

Sicheng held a hand up and she fell silent, lowering her head in respect and watching as the hysterical screams quieted down for a moment before returning at full force. Lowering himself down to the floor, the prince cupped the little boy’s cheeks to still his thrashing body. “There now, that’s enough… Come with me and we can talk about what’s making you so sad-“ He recoiled as little teeth sank down into the flesh of his hand with incredible force.

Silently, he picked up the writhing form and proceeded to carry him into the bedroom with a scowl as he set the child down onto the bed, putting him back every time that he tried to climb off to run away. Kneeling down, he set his expression into a firm frown and looked the boy in the eyes “Ypou’re going to sit there until you’ve calmed down and when I come back we’ll talk about why you’re upset, and why you cant get this hysterical again.” 

Standing, he turned as if to leave, stopping when he felt the tight grip on the back of his shirt. He turned slightly, noticing how red the child’s face had gotten as he let out ragged breaths. “Please don’t leave me here…” He whispered and the sadness in his features had something aching in Sicheng’s chest, sending him down onto his knees to gather him close and simply rock him as he clutched at any part of the prince’s body that was available for him to touch. 

“I won’t. I promise I wont just leave you.” 

When his brother’s found him some hours later Sicheng was still kneeling on the carpet with the child sleeping soundly on his front, and despite the wince he gave as he shifted his weight he still found himself smiling at the child’s sweet face as he slept. 

Kun could only raise an eyebrow as Renjun broke out into laughter, stifled by a hand clamped over his mouth.

“What’s so funny?” 

“Its just… he played Sicheng like a fiddle! He’s a lot more like Chenle than we ever thought.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry chapters are coming so slow! Its become that I'm upload whenever I'm able to because things have become a lot busier than I ever though they would. I hope you enjoy the chapter anyway, and I'll try to figure out some way to try and get more chapters out.


	5. Chapter 5

Kun, Renjun and Sicheng strolled slowly through the halls of the palace, nodding slowly and chatting amongst themselves as they admired the decorations that were being laid out in preparation for the party that was set to happen that afternoon. “What did you get him?” Sicheng asked after glancing around quickly to ensure that the little boy wasn’t listening. 

Kun grinned widely and gestured to a little pile of boxes on the table “I couldn’t decide what he would like the most, so I just got him one of each thing that I thought he might like.” The other two princes glanced at their respective piles of presents with a little grimace before breaking out into quiet laughter. 

“Yes, I can understand that…” Renjun muttered “But just think about how happy he’ll be when he opens all of his nice gifts!” 

There was a hum of acknowledgement from his older brothers, broken by a little cough that had them casting their glances upwards to the stop of the stairs when the child stood, looking down on them with a pale, pensive expression. The prince’s were upon him in seconds, pinching his cheeks and running their hands over his hair which was wound tightly into little caramel coloured curls. His hands fidgeted with the fabric of his frilled shirt and one absently reached up to tug at the ribbon wrapped around his neck, only for it to be batted away by Kun who looked at him with soft adoration. “You look very nice…” He said softly as he adjusted his jacket slightly and ruffled his curls “We’ve got to oversee a few more things, so for now you can go through to the drawing room and wait until your party is ready.”

“OK.” The boy mumbled as he turned and headed away from the three, turning into the corridor and letting out a little sigh as his hand reached up and touched the alien strands on top of his head. He felt a wash of happiness as he wandered through the halls and took in the faces in the portraits that hung there. Kun stared down at him from the first, adorned in his coronation robes and looking elegant with his crown. Sicheng was second, smiling wide and toothy in a portrait that he knew would make Kun sigh every time that he looked at it. Renjun was third, looking significantly younger than the others but still with a familiar look of seriousness. The fourth picture was one that he’d never seen before. Depicting a boy, younger than the other princes, with caramel coloured curls and a frilled shirt with a ribbon around his neck-

“Oh!” Came a voice from the end of the hall “The guests are all here, we can start the party now if you’re ready…” He nodded wordlessly and turned away from the picture with a bitter feeling in his gut that not even stacks of bright presents and cake could displace, and a smile that couldn’t reach his eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi yeah, I've been gone for a hot minute but I'm back home on break now, so I'll be posting some updates and stuff. I hope you enjoy the chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

“Something is wrong with him.” Sicheng commented as the three of them watched the little boy from the window of the castle. His usually chipper demeanour had faded slowly over the weeks following his birthday party, leaving nothing behind but a quiet child who did as he was told in a way that set the princes on edge. He swung aimlessly on the tire swing in the gardens, ignoring the pleas of the servants to change into something more fit for playing in and simply staring out into the garden, seeing nothing. 

His older brother nodded slightly “I know. I don’t know why, or what we can do to fix him.” 

“He’s astoundingly like Lele,” Renjun commented “When he would get into moods like this, we would just give him things he liked, or bring up other children to play with him. Perhaps we could do the same with him?” 

The elder princes snapped their heads in his direction with wide eyes and bright smiles, snapping their fingers to summon the servants and delivering their orders quickly and waiting in anticipation as a little figure moved across the lawn to where the boy was sat. The boy tapped his shoulder lightly, drawing his attention with a little grin. “You’re the prince’s ward aren’t you?” He asked, lighting up at the little nod he received as a response “My name is Jisung! My dad works here at the castle, and sometimes I’m allowed to have tea in the garden. Do you want to come join me for tea?” 

“OK.”

The two walked quickly up to the steps with Jisung making conversation until they reached the table, at which point he paused to pour the tea and select cakes from the stand that sat between them. “So what’s your name?” He asked around a mouthful of cream.

“Chenle.” 

A fleeting look of discomfort crossed his features and Chenle watched as he wiped the cake from around his mouth and set the rest of the pastry down onto his plate “Oh… Just like the young prince then!” 

“Yeah.” He said, picking at the mess of berries and cream in front of him and maintaining a solid stare at it as he squashed each strawberry into little more than a crush of red mush “Speaking of the young prince… how did he die?”

Jisung seemed to squirm harder at the question, but answered none the less “When the princes were gone for war a few years ago, Prince Lele decided that he had had enough of the way he was treated and decided to…” He gestured awkwardly “Kill himself. The princes were devastated of course, especially when he seemed so happy all of the time, and was always celebrating their achievements and keeping everyone happy.” He seemed to lapse into thought for a moment before straightening up with a slightly forced looking smile on his face “I figured that you would know about all of this – it was big news after all, and with you sleeping in his room and looking just like him, down to the clothes and all…” 

Setting the cup down gently, Chenle looked at his shivering figure in the liquid for a moment then stood, sparing a little smile to his new friend before retreating into the castle. 

“That seemed like it went really well!” Kun said cheerfully, setting his own cup down onto the table “Hopefully his spirits will be lifted a little bit now.” 


	7. Chapter 7

Chenle didn’t look up when the knock came at his door, after all the princes would let themselves in with or without his approval to do so. Renjun watched him carefully from the doorway with a congregation of maids following behind him to help with the piles of boxes that he carried with him. “It’s been a little while since we last spent time together” he commented as he set the boxes down on the floor in front of the fire and began unpacking their contents carefully “so I brought some snacks and figured that we could spend some time putting the pictures we took at your birthday into these albums. You wanna do that with me?” 

He didn’t dare to argue. Slipping down onto the floor, he seized the first of the albums and opened it to find several pictures of the princes as young children; messing around in the gardens or holding swords as they practiced with the knights, and even a very cute one of Kun trying on his fathers uniform and crown which swamped him in a way that made it impossible not to smile. Then came the pages that sent a sour curdling sensation into his stomach – pictures of the prince Chenle who grinned back at him from the pages, decked in decadent materials and gorging himself on the foods that Chenle himself had been enjoying since his arrival, playing with the same toys and doing the same things with his older brothers who looked on with such adoration that it made his chest hurt. Slamming it shut, he moved onto the next album. Again, more pictures of Chenle. Yet those ones had a strange sensation growing in his chest as he seized the pile of pictures from the pocket that Renjun had put them in and began to compare them. 

A picture of him with the princes as he opened his birthday gifts was almost identical to the one of the young prince who he looked on with delight as he received an identical set of gifts to the ones given to his replacement. Another of himself with Sicheng who helped him as he pulled a bowstring back was identical to another of the prince, and as he flicked through them he noticed: every single picture of them was a near perfect recreation of those inside of the albums of their younger brother. 

“OK so do you want hot chocolate or s’mores first?” Renjun asked as he accepted a plate with a grin that faded as he noticed Chenle’s stance in front of the fire, holding the album above the flames with a dead eyed look. He moved cautiously as if he were approaching some wounded animal, then lunged, a second too late to save the album which tumbled down into the flames with a scream from Renjun as if he were the one that was thrown into the roaring flames. The staff scrambled to pull the burning tome from the flames as the other brothers gathered and looked on with horror as the face of their precious little brother crumbled to ash under their fingertips. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I’m on holiday somewhere where the internet access isn’t good so I’ve been backed up with updates.


	8. Chapter 8

He’d made it out of the castle grounds by the time that they’d caught up with him and despite their fury at his actions, some little part of their hearts broke at the sight of Chenle’s tear stained face. The boy had recoiled from their touches as they attempted to grab ahold of him and upon the touch of Sicheng’s hand on his wrist, he began to slap at it violently in an effort to detach it, screaming bloody murder as he did so. 

“Stop that!” Sicheng hissed ash is grip tightened on the boy “Stop screaming because it’s not going to stop the talk that we need to have!” 

Wrenching his arm away Chenle scowled at the three men in front of him, growing angrier and angrier as he observed the confusion and hurt in their faces “Talk? You want to talk? Why? You haven’t listened to me any other time, because you don’t care about what I have to say!” 

“We care about you more than anything in this world… we do everything we can for you and expect nothing in return for you in doing so.” Kun hissed. 

“Nothing in return?” Chenle asked, voice hollow and pained “What about when you gave me sweets and presents then begged me to let you change my name? What about when I bumped my nose falling off the swing and you said that it was broken so I could get a surgery that made me look more like Prince Lele? What about when you gave me a birthday party and dressed me up as him?” He paused for a moment to blink away the tears “You’ve never listened to me. Not when it matters.” He continued to walk, not caring as the tears flowed down the prince’s cheeks at his retreating figure and not caring about the implications of walking away. 

“Is that what we’ve been doing?” Kun asked him hollowly “have you been suffering in silence this whole time and saying nothing?” The only response was a little nod that had his face crumpling as he approached the boy and pulled him close into a tight hug, squeezing as if he were afraid that he would disappear if he didn’t. The other two brothers followed suit, taking their young ward into their arms and squashing him between their bodies in an inescapable cage of adoration. They caged him in with apologies, with small touches to the hair that was his yet so alien to him, with promises to do better and be better in the future as they called him by a name that wasn’t his own. His chest ached with understanding - as long as he existed they would be there to adore him. 

“Do you want to come back in and we can have some cake while we talk, Chenle?” Renjun asked, and the boy glanced at the splendour around him, considering its cost for a moment before plastering a smile onto his face and accepting their hands as they dragged him back to their perfect cage. 


End file.
